Do substance use, mental health, and sexual experiences vary for teen dating violence victims based on characteristics of their violent relationships

Teen dating violence literature treats it as a unitary phenomenon, despite evidence of different types of violent relationships (Johnson, 2006; Zweig et al., 2013) including: intimate terrorism (IT) which involves a physically violent perpetrator asserting control through tactics such as threats, intimidation, isolation, emotional abuse, and sexual control; and situational couple violence (SCV) which involves physical violence between partners which may or may not be reciprocal, but is absent control dynamics.  We examined female and male reports of their own victimization and perpetration using a sample of 3,378 youth (mean age=15) in three northeastern states in current or recent dating relationships (54% female; 69% White).  Twenty-nine percent experienced some type of physical violence victimization.  Of these, similar proportions of female and male victims reported IT (14%) and SCV (83%).  We examined whether the substance use, mental health, and sexual experiences of IT and SCV victims varied and whether gender moderated these relationships.  IT victims reported significantly greater feelings of depression, anxiety, and hostility than SCV victims.  IT victims were more likely to have had sex than SCV victims and, of those, were more likely to have had sex at a younger age.  No significant differences were found for frequency of alcohol or marijuana use.  However, male IT victims used serious drugs at a frequency that was twice as high as male SVC victims. Among female victims, SCV victims used serious drugs at a frequency that was twice as high as IT victims.  Implications for prevention and intervention will be discussed.